BusyConf's Third High School Intern: Osman Sheikh

by Osman Sheikh on Jun 24, 2013

Hi! My name is Osman, and I’m an entrepreneur, amateur web developer, and marketing/sales focused intern here at BusyConf. One of the quotes I live by is:

“Life is short. Build stuff that matters.”–Siqi Chen

I try to do something that matters everyday.

I go to John Champe High School in Aldie, VA, and I hope to go to George Washington University when I graduate next year. I’ve always been interested in two things: technology and business, and I was lucky enough to see where they crossed paths. I love everything about businesses, entrepreneurship, and technology. My first “business” began in 2009 when I started copywriting for other small businesses. As a computer enthusiast, I was surprised by the number of small businesses that had little experience in leveraging the power of the internet. Afterwards, I branched out and started helping small businesses set up their own websites.

As I entered high school, my passion for entrepreneurship and technology really began to take shape. I started to use all the free time I had to learn web development and start a few e-commerce websites. I was having fun learning to program and optimizing my e-commerce sites, but I realized that I wasn’t progressing as fast as I could. I was learning in a vacuum. I wasn’t being challenged. My friends were not web developers or entrepreneurs. Any progress that I made was amazing to them, but they didn’t quite understand what I was doing. Of course, I liked being praised, but I realized that I wouldn’t improve without interacting with people who are doing the same thing as me. I needed a group of peers who would push me to do better. As far as I knew, there weren’t any young web developers or entrepreneurs in my area, so I turned to the internet.

I became a Hacker News/TechCrunch addict. Every minute of my free time was spent reading, learning, and researching startups, programming, and entrepreneurship. I used Treehouse and other resources to learn new skills. I saw people my age or even a few years younger starting innovative businesses, and this pushed me to do better.

Last month, I was sitting in my school’s library during study hall and decided to go on Hacker News. The default browser home page was my school’s website, and an announcement in the header urged visitors to check out a list of summer programs and internships in the area. I clicked on the link expecting the typical sports camps and summer classes, but I was surprised to see an internship for a local startup on the list. BusyConf was written in bold letters. As I usually do, I immediately Googled BusyConf to find out more. First of all, I was surprised that there were any startups within 50 miles of my suburban neighborhood. I was even more surprised to find out that the founder of BusyConf was an experienced web developer and entrepreneur. Acting on impulse, I immediately sent Ryan a (probably over-) excited e-mail asking him if I could intern at BusyConf. A week later, I was at the BusyConf offices interviewing for a position. This was my first job interview ever, and I was nervous, confused, and generally lost. The interview was the first time I could openly talk about startups, web development, and entrepreneurship with someone who was actually involved in these things.

On the first day, Ryan gave me, Forrest and Stuart an impromptu lesson on business negotiations with a real life example. Unplanned lessons like these are something I really look forward to this summer. I want to learn as much as I can about startups, programming, and web development while being an asset to BusyConf and providing value to our customers.